Hi all!

I won't finish this park before PZ2 but I did put in many years of hard work so I wanted to share it with you all.

~Rotterdam Zoo - Rotterdamse Diergaarde~

This is a historic recreation of my local zoo. The Rotterdam Zoo used to be housed in the old city center and was fashioned like other old city zoos such as Artis in Amsterdam or the Zoo Antwerp. When Rotterdam grew bigger the city wanted to use the ground the zoo was located on for other buildings. This gave the Zoo an opportunity to move and start from scratch. This also was a very special moment to design and master plan a full size zoo in one go. Sybold van Ravensteyn was the man who would design the layout, building, interiors and many more decorative elements for the zoo. This has resulted in a zoo with 1 very strong style and cohesive architecture look. The new zoo was build on a polder/piece of farm land just outside the city boundaries. This new neighborhood was names Blijdorp after the original farm lands and so the zoo also adopted the Blijdorp name.

~1940-1950~

The Zoo opened in 1940 which is a very specific year in Dutch and Rotterdam history. This is the year when the Netherlands got invaded by Germany and the WOII started for us. The city of Rotterdam was heavily bombed and the historic city center was almost fully destroyed including the old city zoo. The weird coincidence is that 1940 also was planned to be the opening year for the new Blijdorp Zoo outside the city. The new zoo was almost fully finished and opened in 1940. Because the city center was almost fully destroyed the zoo took over the roll of main event space for formal events but also for entertainment for the people of the city (and sadly also for the occupiers)

~Recreation~

For this recreation I wanted to capture the early years of the new zoo when all of the buildings and layout by Ravensteyn were still in tact. A lot of the original buildings and layout can still be found in the current zoo but some mayor elements have been lost or altered. I do know animal welfare standards have improved immensely since 1940 but for recreation sake and for historical accuracy I still wanted to follow the original plans.

To tackle this recreation I've collected many old photos and blueprints from the city archives. I've also used and edited the old map as a base for this recreation.

This is a screenshot of the park plans from the early years. I've traced and colored it in Illustrator myself.

This is the current stage and I don't really feel the need to finish it before Planet Zoo 2. I love the project but I think stuff like scaling will and my grown skills and knowledge of the zoo will be great for a second go around in PZ2.

The zoo seen from the north. The layout was designed around a central axis that stretches from the 2 points of the zoo that are farthest apart. Most of the mayor building were located on this central axis. Fanning of this main axis are all the animal habitat and fields. The center of the zoo and focal point was the observation tower and lake. Attached to the tower was the main building complex of the zoo which housed the tropical greenhouses, a stage for events & concerts, indoor exhibits for the great apes, indoor exhibits for pachyderms and a restaurant and smaller exhibit spaces.

The Zoo as seen from the north looking at the south.

The zoo seen from the south. This gives a better view of the massive central building complex of the zoo. In the left corner on the lower end of the axis you can see the old predator building with a large chimney to heat the indoor holdings. This building used to house lions and tigers on 2 separate terraces. The south was closer connected to the old city center. The large intersection and tram loop is where the main entrance is located.

This angle is also from the south but shifted a bit more to the west. On the left of the surrounding trees you can see a large playground that was added after opening.

I never got to the playground part in my recreation sadly.

A quick spin around the observation tower for an overview of the park!

Coming up!

I want to go around the zoo and take you on a tour of the stuff I've done so far and stuff that I never got around finishing, hope you all enjoy :D

~Dexter~

Edited July 1Jul 1 by Dxtrrr
Took out 2 wrong pictures

It's amazing how accurately you've reproduced the real zoo in PZ!

11 hours ago, JB said:

It's amazing how accurately you've reproduced the real zoo in PZ!

Thanks for the comment! It was really fun but also a struggle to get everything on the right scale. I projected a 4m by 4m grid on top op the park map and went square by square to get everything in the right position. For all the buildings I've found all the original blueprints in the city archives so they were a huge help.

WOW! Now THAT is impressive! The overall layout is gorgeous in the original, and you were able to recreate it so closely. Just amazing.

12 hours ago, Wabigbear said:

WOW! Now THAT is impressive! The overall layout is gorgeous in the original, and you were able to recreate it so closely. Just amazing.

Thanks! This park has always been my main project for PZ and has been worked on from the start of the game till now so that has been many years. I love historical city zoo's but this zoo is a strange in between classic and modern zoo with they layout. The habitats and fields are big, the barriers make use of moats and glass (very modern at the time) and yet most of the holding areas are still painfully small and they still had old style bear pits and loads of concrete flooring in habitats.

Great job on this. I look forward to seeing you recreate this in PZ2.

I'm not familiar with this zoo, but surprised to see an observation tower. I though my Animal World tower was a unique idea. Never knew a real world zoo had one too.

Edited July 3Jul 3 by shyguy

1 hour ago, shyguy said:

Great job on this. I look forward to seeing you recreate this in PZ2.

I'm not familiar with this zoo, but surprised to see an observation tower. I though my Animal World tower was a unique idea. Never knew a real world zoo had one too.

Thanks! The scaling will be my savior in PZ2. It was such a struggle to work with very thick wall pieces in PZ1. The new pathing tool will also be ideal for a park like this, the big wide sandy patch in my pictures is supposed to be a plaza but you can't make those very easily in PZ1.
Yeah I was happily surprised to see yours too! I think they are a great fit for zoos. I'm really curious to see more up close pictures of your tower. This one is was a tough one because it is made up of 2 twisting stairs (one for going up and one for going down) that twist around a central glass elevator shaft. The real Blijdorp tower sadly got torn down due to poor maintenance in the early seventies. I find it a crime because it was such an integral part of the building complex and central navigation and focus point of the zoo. I'm born after it already was gone so I sadly never got to witness it. I do have some old photos of my grandma on top of the observation deck.

Hi all!

Let's start the tour of the park :D We will start at the southern portion of the zoo today. We will visit the main entrance, souvenir shop & refreshment stand and our first 2 exhibits. The first exhibit is a more traditional bear pit that was dubbed a 'Bears Theater' in this zoo. The second is a the first of many open field exhibits in the zoo. This one was build for Llamas, Indian Antelopes (Blackbuck) and Nilgai. There a a lot of unfinished places in this part of my recreation but I wanted to show all of what I've made so far.

~Rotterdam Zoo - Diergaarde Blijdorp Tour 01~

We start of at point A for the entrance to the zoo. This is a very early picture because you basically have 0 greenery and trees. The smaller gates on the left are the ticket booths and the larger ones on the right are used as exit and more ceremonial purposes.

I never got around to finishing the ticket booths. Planet Zoo was lacking a lot of small and thin pieces that I needed for this part. I can't wait to take a shot at them in Planet Zoo 2 when we get proper scaling tools.

Closer look at the large ornamental gates. The animal sculptures on top where finished with a layer of gold leaf paint.

I hope Planet Zoo 2 comes with marble pieces like Planet Coaster 2 does because it is one of the textures I really missed in doing recreations like this and in making my own classic city zoos.

The current entree as seen on google maps. I love how green the zoo has grown over the years but it also blocks the main view of the central building complex. The observation tower is also missing as a huge focal point of the zoo.

"De Winkel van Sinkel" (The Van Sinkel Shop) at point B is a kiosk you first find when walking into the zoo and also the last one you see when leaving the zoo. This kiosk sold refreshments and souvenirs. The fancy building in the back that is attached to the main entrance is the administrative building. The building also had room for the zoo director to live in on top 2 floors.

This is also a part that I didn't get to do in Planet Zoo. Once again the thickness of the walls in the game made doing this one in true scale almost impossible.

A fun fact for this location is that at one point the store was transformed into a habitat to house African Penguins. I vividly remember this habitat because it was one of the first (and last) things you'd see when visiting the zoo.

Today this habitat is gone and 'De Winkel Van Sinkel' has been restored to it's former glory and function.

At point 1 we find the bears theater. On the map it is labeled for Brown Bear. I've seen some other pictures where they have also housed Polar Bears and more bear species from other habitats in the zoo. During one of the backstage tours I got to visit the indoor cages behind the doors in the wall on the picture. They were shockingly small and I'm so happy we don't house bears like this anymore in zoos.

I never got around to starting this part either. This part is doable in the game but I just never got to it. In the real zoo this part is unused right now. They did refurbished the building but filled in the terrace and moat with greenery and no animals.

Another look that show the large moat between the terrace and the public. The zoo was very 'modern' for its time by going for Hagenbeck style habitats that have no visible walls or cages but uses dry moats or moats with water like this one. This gave the visitors of the zoo a mostly unobstructed view of the animals.

I sadly don't have any clean close up pictures of the the second habitat for Llamas, Indian Antelopes (Blackbuck) and Nilgai at point B of our tour. So you have to look at these pictures to see the habitat from afar. In current day this habitat houses Finnish Forest Reindeer (Wild Forest Reindeer).

I deleted quite some trees to match this shot better with the historical pictures. When building this zoo I wanted to stay close to the opening years but also give room to the lush greenery the zoo is known for today.

Even though the zoo avoids traditional walls or fences that block the visitors views into the habitats they do have several of these gate like structures that are designated feeding points. These point give the visitors a closeup look at how the animal feed. This specific habitat works mostly with low fences and a dry moat.

I went all out with the greenery because it looks pretty. In the real zoo this is also a forest habitat but with a more realistic forest floor that mostly consist of dirt and mulch.

Picture of the recently fully refurbished stables.

One of the many recognizable architecture of the zoo are the many stables that are all build in the same style. The are all black wooden stables with red shingle roofs and white accents. These buildings are protected by law because of their historic value. Very few of these stables where demolished before the protected laws where put in place so you can still view many of them today.

The interior is made up of 6 smaller stables and 2 storage rooms.

It was a long post but I hope you all enjoyed this part of the tour :D See you all next time when we visit the predator terrace for Lions and Tigers.

~Dexter~

I like how you mix the original real-life photos with your PZ re-creations.

Nice work. I too love the real photos to give an idea. I love zoo history. Did you draw that map/plat yourself. its perfection.

8 hours ago, JB said:

I like how you mix the original real-life photos with your PZ re-creations.

Thanks for the comment, happy to hear people enjoy it! I use loads of old pictures, blueprint and my own pictures of the current day zoo when building on this park. I wanted share a bit of the progress with you all that way.

6 hours ago, Wowman said:

Nice work. I too love the real photos to give an idea. I love zoo history. Did you draw that map/plat yourself. its perfection.

Thanks for the comment! I also love zoo history :D I'm quite fascinated by zoo from around the 1900 till 1940 period. I find the architecture from that time really pretty and love how zoos slowly moved to more natural and larger habitats yet still have a more classic and science based way of ordering zoo. Animal welfare was rough but that makes if fun to build in game so no real animals are harmed. The map is a original blueprint of the zoo meant to show the general layout and locations of buildings. The map itself is just a black and white blueprint. I traced it in Adobe Illustrator and added the colors myself to make it more readable. I've done the same for the Antwerp Zoo and the old Rotterdam City Zoo.

Hi all!

Let's walk some more for part 2 of the tour :D We will start where we left off last time on the little plaza behind the stables of our first open field habitat. Today we will visit the predator building and terraces which houses Tigers, Lions and exhibits for smaller Felidae. We also get to take a peak inside the indoor holding area for them. After that we will circle the building and pass the starting place for Camel and Elephant riding. This big open space behind the predator building has always been reserved for the zoos Aquarium but due to many reasons it never got build on this space. We will end the tour with some time traveling and see how this part of the zoo looks today.

~Rotterdam Zoo - Diergaarde Blijdorp Tour 02~

Our starting point of today.

The predator building is build symmetrical with 2 mirrored terraces to showcase the animals and is build along the central axis of the zoo. As you can see I never really finished the left side which is supposed to house the Tigers at point 3. The right side is the one for Lions at point 4 and I did finish and landscaped most of that side.

The unfinished Tiger side.

The Lion side. The big chimney in the middle is connected to the boiler room at the center of the building. It was build to warm the indoor holding but also to help heat a future Aquarium building which was planned to connect to the back of this building. The chimney is decorated with glazed ceramic tiles and a statue of Orpheus from Greek classic myths.

Funfact: The bowl on top of the pillar was fitted with piping for gas. This allowed them to have flames inside the bowl.

Walking around the terraces brings you to the side of the building. Both ends of the building have a smaller exhibit to showcase smaller Felidae species. I sadly couldn't find much information about what animals where held in these exhibits.

The public was allowed to view the indoor holding so let's take a peak inside!

On the Lions side of the building they had 1 indoor space for the the smaller exhibit on the side, 6 regular indoor holding spaces for the lions and 1 separate area for baby animals. On the Tigers side it looked mostly the same and was organized in a similar but with with 1 less indoor holding space.

The sandy part on the left (point 5) is where they used to have 2 sets of wooden stairs setup. These where used to climb on the back of a camel or Elephant that would then make a small route around the zoo. The grass field (including the sandy part) where all reserved for an Aquarium building that sadly never got build. It would have followed the curved shape of the predator house and pathways.

~TIME TRAVEL SECTION~

Over the years this part of the zoo had some smaller exhibits to fill in the open space but never a large scale exhibit. In 2018 a new exhibit opened in this space. The old predator building closed and the Lions and Tigers had already found a new place in the zoo. The old predator building outdoor space was merger by removing the central fence to create 1 giant exhibit space on the terrace side. The same was done on the backside and a new outdoor exhibit was created here. Gelada Baboons (Bleeding-Heart Monkey) would be the new residents for this part of the zoo! This also gave the zoo a good moment to fully renovate the building and indoor spaces.

Newly renovated predator building. The smaller exhibits on the sides remain empty but have a more educational function to show how animal where housed.

The newly renovated indoor space. Part of the old indoor holding is opened up so you can enter. The others are connected to create a lager indoor space for the animals. Only the old Lions side of the building is open for public viewing. The Tigers side is closed off and has more indoor holding.

The old terrace part of the building is the new outdoor part for the male bachelor group of the zoo.

The backside now houses the outdoor part for the family group. The zoos has been successful in breeding the Geladas so it is always fun to see the babies.

I planned to have more exhibits in this post but it got quite long already so I'll save them for next time! Hope oy all enjoyed :D We finished most of the southern part of the zoo so we will move up into the western part time and visit the Yaks, Camels and Reindeer.

~Dexter~

Oh, the good old days of sparse, concrete enclosures and turning animals into beasts of burden, hauling guests on the backs throughout the zoo. 😉

I can also see that recreating this must have been a pathing nightmare. PZ2's new path system should make it so much easier.

1 hour ago, shyguy said:

Oh, the good old days of sparse, concrete enclosures and turning animals into beasts of burden, hauling guests on the backs throughout the zoo. 😉

I can also see that recreating this must have been a pathing nightmare. PZ2's new path system should make it so much easier.

Wait till we get to the monkeys for some more good old concrete pits 😬 I knew what to expect when researching the zoo but the animal riding part was not a happy surprise. Also learning how all animals (including families and herding species) used to be put in individual holding spaces at night makes me quite uncomfortable. They really thought that was the best and save way to do it back then.

I honestly did most of the building without paths. I just painted the terrain sand and called it a day. The hit boxes around moats, water and barriers are horrible. When I did squeeze them in they would leave so many gaps I had to fill in with art pieces. I think it'll be a breeze to do in PZ2!!